The Best Liar

The Best Liar

    “And the Judge shall now announce the panel's decision. The panel find the accused free of all charges accused of him.”

    Instantly pandemonium erupted in Court 13 after Judge Jameson announced the decision. I hung my head low, having accepted the truth that I had lost this case halfway through. It was not my first lost case, but nor had I have won more than ten cases out of twenty. I peeked at my client through the corner of my eyes. She slumped on the chair, burying her head into her hands, crying sobs of despair. Shouts of “That's unfair!” and “What the hell were they thinking?” echoed around the court room.

    I put my hands on her shoulders to console her. “Come on, let's get out of here.” While allowing her some time to pull herself together, I shot a glance at the leaving middle-aged man and his attorney. Their faces were that of concealed smugness. One again a past criminal was let off the hook, by a so-called “warrior of justice” as my father would call them. I was not very sure what kinds of law were practiced during his era, but it sure were the ones we were practicing now.

    Holding my sobbing client around my arm, I led her outside. As expected, Mr Heathrow and his unnamed attorney were waiting for us.

“Not what you expected, eh?” taunted Mr Heathrow, his obese body shaking with laughter.
My client, Miss Sarah, shot him an icy glare. “I loathe you.”
“Touchy.”I nodded towards the other attorney and led both of them away before this could turn ugly.
“Come on now, you need some coffee.”
“It's still in my head, you know, all the thing he'd done to my mom, the things he yelled at me. And yet, he's my—father,” she spat out the last word venomously.
I only could nod silently.

    An hour later, I was on my own, in a Starbucks sipping my cappuccino. I could imagine the headline for the evening newspaper: Case Lost and Over for Girl and Father. I sighed. At least I got payment. I had joined the world of law initially not for the money, as most people would have thought. Instead, I believed my father's famous -and incorrect- saying that attorneys were “warriors of justice” and set out to join them on their quest for it. Naturally, I got to know better after a few years in this world. As my employer would put it, “Everyone lies. But the best liar says the truth.” A courtroom is basically like chickens fighting. Each competitor puts in his or her best chicken (or attorney) and watching them bawl themselves out  to gain the ultimate prize. In the case of chickens, food and water; attorneys prefer cash. 

    I sighed again and went back to my favourite hobby, people watching. It was amazing what you could gleam from one's clothing, expression, and even the way they walked around. Eyes, however, is arguably the most informative organ after the skin. From another's eyes, you could see if the person was scared, happy, in love, angry, paranoid and so forth. It really helped out a lot when I got to know all this. Some times, I get to use old-school psychology to manipulate people after analyzing their eyes and forced them to say what I want them to say. Too bad it did not work for Mr Jameson or any of witnesses. The case might rigged, but who knows? I surely did not want to risk my career for it.

    My phone beeped twice. A text message came in. Carefully putting my cappuccino down on the table, I peeked a look at it. Anthr clnt came in. Come 2 hq in 30min, it read. I smiled.